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The business of writing: contests
Jan. 9th, 2011 11:14 amI bring this up not because I am entering or running one but because it came up on a list that I'm on, along with a few misconceptions. Contests for writers come in a variety of shapes and forms depending on who's running them, who the target population is and what the end result is supposed to be. Romance as a genre is considerably more contest-based than SF/F, for example. Contest prizes range across genres, including everything from publication to agent feedback to actual cash. Quite a few small presses, publications and writer's organizations use them as fundraisers. Writers may pay a fee to enter their work or there may be additional fundraising to pay for prizes and so forth. For sf/f contests, the prizes come from what's left over from registration fees after expenses are paid while others conduct auctions or equivalent. In romance contests, the writers send in a fee to pay for their entries. Fees generally go toward publicity, mailing copies, web and email costs, remuneration of expenses to the agents, editors and pros doing the judging and so forth.
SF fandom is unique in that there are a lot of conventions with a lot of face time with editors, writers, agents and publishers, all of which can provide different avenues to publishing. Romance and mystery, on the other hand, have a couple of big conventions annually where time with pros is highly structured. The contests are considered to be an avenue to possible publication and worth the fees if you get decent feedback. SF contests often don't charge upfront entry fees because expenses are covered by other kinds of fee and fundraising structures. Exceptions to this include the aforementioned fundraising contests. Whether or not you as a writer want to entry writing contests should be determined by what you think you'll get out of it. No, it is not the same thing as paying a publisher to publish you. There are no guarantees and like anything else, there are good contests and bad contests so ask around, do your research and evaluate accordingly.
SF fandom is unique in that there are a lot of conventions with a lot of face time with editors, writers, agents and publishers, all of which can provide different avenues to publishing. Romance and mystery, on the other hand, have a couple of big conventions annually where time with pros is highly structured. The contests are considered to be an avenue to possible publication and worth the fees if you get decent feedback. SF contests often don't charge upfront entry fees because expenses are covered by other kinds of fee and fundraising structures. Exceptions to this include the aforementioned fundraising contests. Whether or not you as a writer want to entry writing contests should be determined by what you think you'll get out of it. No, it is not the same thing as paying a publisher to publish you. There are no guarantees and like anything else, there are good contests and bad contests so ask around, do your research and evaluate accordingly.